Author's posts listings

There is an apologist I know who continually uses an argument roughly like this: If we are just pieces of meat responding to stimuli, how can there be any such thing as meaning or morality? This sort of argument is common in apolgetics–both its content and its attempt to sweep a bunch of stuff under …

Saying that Jesus was not a Christian seems so counterintuitive, but it’s a statement that I think is both true and very significant. Tell your average Christian this and they may say, “Well, he was a Jew at the time, but of course he prepared the way for everyone to be saved through Christianity so …

It’s been difficult to post lately, so I’ve decided to focus on shorter posts and less on establishing philosophical rigor. That’s not to say the points won’t be valid. Rather, I just won’t be providing as much defense of each point and won’t be considering as many counterpoints. I’d like to begin this effort by …

There are generally two types of philosophical discussions concerning morality. There are conversations about normative ethics, which concerns what we should do in various situations. These are the types of conversations about morality most people have. For example, if an angry mob is threatening to destroy a town if you don’t turn over a suspected …

In Part I, I discussed the idea that atheism leads to tragedies, like the Holocaust. I explained why this was absurd, but I wanted to save a discussion of metaethics for a separate post. I had originally intended for this post to be a tour de force of my thoughts on ethics and theism, but …

A few days ago, I discussed the roundtable discussion and Q&A with local Christian and atheist speakers. I recapped some general thoughts and provided some further arguments pertaining to the origins discussion. Today, I want to discuss the next topic—purpose. I don’t recall any substantial arguments offered from the theists that required rebuttal. So, I’ll …

Last night, I took part in an open panel discussion between Christians and atheists. This was an event organized by Faith Ascent Ministries, which teaches apologetics to teens. It was billed as an opportunity for those kids, their parents, and anyone else interested to come and ask questions, hear answers from both atheists and Christians, …

I was told today that I could not possibly have been a Christian if I later became an atheist. I must have merely been a “professing” Christian, so this person claimed. Ironically, I would agree with that claim if posed in a certain way. After all, I don’t think anyone is a true Christian under …

One of my favorite arguments against the existence of a personal God is the argument from hiddenness. I described J.L. Schellenberg’s original version of the argument here. Essentially, the argument says that a God seeking a relationship with us would do a better job. It doesn’t make sense that there are people sincerely seeking this …

One of the difficulties facing theologians and philosophers of religion has been to ascertain the relationship between God and time. Assuming God, is it more likely that God exists within time or outside of time? I’m going to suggest that either answer to this problem leads to undesirable results for theists, creating a dilemma. Two …